Life in SEA is not all about magic. There are beautiful landscapes with precious flora and fauna too. Please enter if you love magic and the nature. If you are particularly looking for magic alone, look elsewhere please for you shall be disappointed. All materials are for entertainment purposes only.

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The Preserved Vege Ghost (荫菜鬼)

Carrots are normally consumed as vegetable... but do you aware of they other uses?

Preserved
vegetables are popular foods in Asia. Having said so, not many people aware
that vegetables too can be mediums for spirit conjurations and binding.

This
conjuration method is known as the ‘preserved carrot ghost’ used to be quite
popular in Taiwan and Minnan (闽南).
Interestingly, the cousin of this ‘preserved carrot ghost’ is the Vietnamese ‘white
tiger ngai’ utilises ginger species as medium. Surprisingly too, the person who
wish to perform the ritual of ‘vegetable ghost’ or ‘white tiger ngai’ must
first worship the ‘five legionnaire armies’ (五营兵).

Whoever
wishes to perform this ritual must obtain a stillborn baby with known date of
birth. After that he/she should bury the dead baby in his/her garden in the
moonrise direction of that time. Next, the person should plant a vegetable
seed, in this case, a carrot seed is normally planted on the baby’s grave.
After the seed is planted, he/she should start watering and chanting
conjuration mantra every day. The baby’s grave should be guarded by the
sorcerer’s spiritual military until the carrot grows.

The
empowerment ritual must continue until the carrot flowered and seeds are
produced. The carrot seeds should be collected and carried along by the
sorcerer wherever he/she goes. This will automatically bring his/her vegetable
ghost pet along. At the same time, the carrot now fully grown must be dug out
and wind dried in a dark place. When the carrot is fully dried, it is wrapped
with a piece of red cloth and worshipped in a separate altar; or beside the
earth spirit (地主).

At the
beginning stage, this preserved carrot should be placed outside of the
caretaker’s house every night to absorb the night dew. It should be brought
back into the house before sunrise. The process should continue until the owner
can communicate with the carrot spirit. After the initial ‘dew empowerment’, it
is sufficed just to feed the carrot spirit with dew once or twice a month.

In
previous years, vegetable ghost is kept mainly by fortune tellers to increase
his/her fortune telling accuracy. Of course, I am not surprised that anyone
would practise this method anymore today. On second thought, if you have a dead
pet dog and you still longed for its company; this ritual maybe useful too.